Mission’s Rowan is Chock Full of Amenities

January 12, 2017

I visited The Rowan last weekend and was impressed with the numerous amenities offered in this nine-story building. It’s what I’d call a “good value” project for home buyers.

Situated on Potrero Avenue at 16th Street on the border of the Mission and Potrero Hill, Rowan is a ten-minute walk from the heart of the steadily developing east end of the Mission. It’s also a short distance from Potrero’s design center and Whole Foods. Rowan’s immediate area has a commercial-industrial-retail feel, with a tire store, McDonald’s, the UPS building and the Safeway shopping center in close proximity. And it should be noted that there’s a prominent homeless presence in the area at the moment.

But buyers have gone into contract on 15 units, of which eight have already closed. Rowan buyers have been exclusively San Francisco residents who work within a mile of the building, in SoMa, the financial district and Mission Bay. And they’re all owner occupiers.

The units themselves are well appointed, with high-end finishes and appliances from Bertazzoni and Bosch (and ranges that actually vent to the outside).

The two-bedroom floor plans have good separation between bedrooms, and the one bedrooms have the extra den space that can come in useful. Much has been made of the diagonal grid on the exterior, which is a unique architectural feature and also serves a structural purpose. However, the grids do obstruct the outlooks. For example, here’s the window in a west-facing, two-bedroom unit on the sixth floor overlooking McDonald’s and Franklin Square Park:

The developer wisely chose to install air conditioning, which is good for two reasons: One, the floor-to-ceiling windows get a lot of sun exposure in this warm microclimate; and two, this is a heavily trafficked intersection. There are also Nest thermostats.

Parking is stacked in mechanical lifts:

I loved the roof deck, which runs the length of the building and has downtown as well as Bernal Hill views: